1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a joint method of joining a processing target substrate and a supporting substrate together, a joint apparatus performing the joint method, and a joint system including the joint apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, for example, in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, the diameter of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”) increasingly becomes larger. Further, the wafer is required to be thinner in a specific process such as packaging. For example, when a thin wafer with a large diameter is transferred or subjected to polishing processing as it is, warpage or break can occur in the wafer. Therefore, in order to reinforce the wafer, for example, bonding the wafer to a wafer being a supporting substrate or a glass substrate is performed.
The bonding of the wafer and the supporting substrate is performed by intervening an adhesive between the wafer and the supporting substrate using, for example, a bonding apparatus. The bonding apparatus has, for example, a first holding member that holds the wafer, a second holding member that holds the supporting substrate, a heating mechanism that heats the adhesive disposed between the wafer and the supporting substrate, and a moving mechanism that moves at least the first holding member or the second holding member in the vertical direction. In the bonding apparatus, the adhesive is supplied between the wafer and the supporting substrate and heated, and then the wafer and the supporting substrate are pressed to be joined together (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-182016).
However, in the case of using the above-described conventional bonding apparatus, the wafer at room temperature will be also rapidly heated when heating the adhesive. Thus, the wafer thermally expands and the wafer and the first holding member rub against each other to generate particles. Due to the particles, the bonding of the wafer and the supporting substrate is not properly performed in some cases.